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Maybe you won't read this

Either way, you make a decision. You don't sit in front of the link to this article and stare at it, wondering whether it is worth your time to open it and read it and at the same time wondering what you might miss out on if you don't.

If someone deliberates this decision for more than a few seconds, you'd think they are stupid, right? I would too.

But when it comes to bigger decisions, we do sit and stare and deliberate. Maybe I'll move to a new country, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll work on my book, maybe I won't.

This indecision takes us nowhere.

An important character trait is to be able to own decisions. Whether the consequences of the decision turn out for the good or for the better. You'll only know once you have made the decision.

If you had made the decision to not read this article, you should just move on and not revisit the decision until new evidence arrives (like someone you know recommending you to read it). Now that you have decided to read it, you can cut your losses and close it the moment you find that it isn't useful, or you carry on and finish it because you find it useful. Either way, make a choice and own it.

Once you make a choice and own it, you will find ways to make it work. Or you'll learn something and quit. You won't be caught in the dream of potential. If you think there is potential, always test it out. And then you'll find out.

If you don't make the choice at all, you will continue to believe that there is potential while all you're doing is pushing the decision farther. Better to learn now than to learn three months from now.

If you have options, if you feel something needs to be changed, make the choice and do it. And then commit to it and own it.

Many of us do make the choices, but don't commit to it or own it. We spend time and resources in setting up fall back plans - plan B, plan C, etc - to account for scenarios where the choice we make doesn't turn out the way we hoped. This is still indecision. Because we will bolt to plan B at the first sign of trouble.

Worse still, we begin to treat the possibility of a different path as a distraction and make a half-hearted attempt and fail so that we get it out of the way and convince ourselves that the default way is the way to be.

Now, don't deliberate and make the choice to share this with your friends.